ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

Another one from xpost The Big Book of Science Fiction, following Simak's taut "Desertion", James Blish's "Surface Tension" is a longer, denser epochal tale of "pantrophy", the adaptation of species to alien environment, rather than terraforming (yo Kim Stanley Robinson). Lost explorers, a team of gifted, versatile scientists, of course, leave a modified genetic legacy and then some, on the mostly aquatic planet where they know they'll soon die. Generations/iterations of the same tiny human-descendant characters gradually become dominant in their universe under the sea, and, influenced by semi-deciphered, mysteriously indestructible texts (engraved plates) left by their creators, times their own human drives, natch, very eventually aspire to break on through to the other side of the sky (which is surface of the planet's ocean).
We get vivid, sometimes almost synesthetic layers of info-laden imagery, re lives under the sea, incl. periodic hibernation and its effects, also battles of humans and allies vs. predator rotifers, and beetle-browned problem-solving, the personal and group politics/relationships facilitating and resulting from all this, but psychological development, though carefully traced, does seem a bit simplified, a bit squeezed (and/or contrasted) by all the sophisticated, textured layers of hard science fiction (intro assures us that Blish's characters could be more "nuanced", and that, despite New Wave complaints, he could even get "avant garde"; I'd like to check some of that).
Between Simak and Blish is Ray Bradbury's "September 2005: The Martian", with pantrophy twisted and tortured and insatiably wished inside out.
Next: "Beyond Lies The Wub", PKD's first published story. Onward!

Simak's story introduces the use of pantrophy, that is.

I kept thinking "hibernation", but do the *characters* (just)think of it as "birth-rebirth", with memories of previous "generations" retained and accumulating, accruing, rather than (basically)the same guys waking up refreshed (albeit from a clearly arduous experience, which may well feel like death and birth)? Which would explain some of the simplified characterization, but still it's a bit tedious sometimes (in contrast, as I said).

Surface Tension is an incredible story, very vivid

"beetle-*browed* problem-solving", that is.

And yeah, it is incredible, no prob going back and re-reading passages during first read-through, parsing and marveling.

I think I came across it in one of those Greatest Science Fiction Stories Ever collections edited by Silverberg...? have to check

ah yep: "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time" Volume 1 and deservedly so

B-b-but then why did you not vote for it in the poll? Oh, I see, you read afterwards.

yeah I didn't vote in that poll - even so I wouldn't say it's the best in that book! stiff competition.

There are two other stories of his that come to mind which get anthologized a lot, "Common Time" and "A Work of Art."

Then there is A Case of Conscience, which is in one of the volumes of that Library of America omnibus. Still haven't read myself.

Enjoyed this interview with Hannu Rajaniemi. He's from Finland (doesn't live there anymore) and he talks about Finnish mythology and culture, a lot about social media that he uses in his work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQMlHiSs__c

Anybody read any Mittelholzer? This one looks promising, in unusual ways:
http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-bones-and-my-flute-edgar-mittelholzer.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Wormwoodiana+%28Wormwoodiana%29

further along in The Big Book of Science Fiction: William Tenn, Katherine MacLean, Chad Oliver are all strong, distinctive writers, basically, but I'm wondering about these particular selections---did they not write something that works all the way through, or are all their stories in need of cherrypicking/ a better edit? Mainly bothered by dated social critiques re plastic suburbia inhabited by fulish fuelish masses (Tenn actually writes "So humanity hung its collective head..."), in ways ultimately as contrived as anything Campbell's technofascists might come up with, despite tasty breadcrumbs along the trail to foregone conclusions. Margaret St. Clair and debuting PKD are cooler and seemingly more casual, trusting us to make our own connections, and their inferred critiques are much fresher (ditto the entertainment).
Will def check more by those first three, though--for inst., Chad Oliver, a cultural anthropologist in Cold War Texas, started the first TX SF fanzine, and can see how he attracted various Texas writers, such as Howard Waldrop and Bruce Sterling (p. various).

But Oliver's story might be okay in an *actually* casual way, despite its Serious critique; it was adapted for Rod Serling's Night Gallery (not tight enough for Twilight Zone).

Been loving night gallery lately and considering reading its orig stories

That one William Tenn short story pretty well-known, often anthologized, thought that would be the nature of your complaint.

Several are well-known, at least within fandom, others not so much: it seems meant for noobs and jaded vets, re ones just now in English, or with updated translations, also lesser known works by English language writers not commonly associated w SF, such as xpost Dubois etc., and especially lesser known Eng. language SF writers (xpost Katherine MacLean, and even the only-relatively-better-known xpost Margaret St. Clair).

Familiarity no prob so far

Maybe you should seek out Tenn's similar and perhaps even better "Brooklyn Project."

I got Immodest Proposals: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn Volume One from SF Book Club a long time ago, and still need to give it a try, especially if Trump wins; I'll probably like Tenn better then.

i have that!! i have not gotten very far in it :(

I took it out of the library once and read around in it but didn't have time to finish.

But the Galaxy Project put out some ebooks of a bunch of his stories a little while back and I read most of those.

How were they?

Haha, have finally got a working eARC of the newest Dave Hutchinson, see you guys in a couple of days

How were they?

Seems like he's got both---what bothered me was he sometimes seemed like a def. sub-Twain curmudgeon, growling around his seegar about them damn masses--"Hey you kids, get off YOUR lawn!"-although he deftly scored points about the enduring tendencies of liberating invaders, and this story was later read aloud at antiwar rallies, according to the intro.

His going for the big effect can be reductive in one way, big and effective in another, as does tend to happen in science fiction and other things (appropriate that he writes about politics, war etc).

Yes. I don't mind that approach as much when it is from the 40s and 50s. At least he had the decency to start teaching and stop writing unlike, say, RAH. (Or IA for that matter)

In the notes to "Brooklyn Project" in Immodest Proposals he says it was turned down for publication everywhere until he finally reached the bottom of the barrel with Planet Stories and even then it just barely made it.

Really!? I wanna know more about Planet Stories---PKD has been quoted as saying that it was the most lurid thing on the newsstands, and when it published xpost "Beyond The Wub", he brought four copies into the record store where he worked---a customer: "Phil! You read that?" "I had to admit I not only read it, I wrote it."

Beyond The Wub is one of about a dozen pkd titles on Gutenberg

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28554

Best of those I've read is the skull

Always figured that one was anthologized a lot because it was public domain.

Really!? I wanna know more about Planet Stories

Ray Bradbury too, "Mars Is Heaven!"

There is a series of volumes by Mike Ashley called The History of the Science Fiction Magazine which has a ton of info on this stuff, but I have only seen through Google Books, or limited in-library ebook access.

Thanks guys. I should have already thought to look for this too:
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/planet_stories Yeah, cites Brackett and Bradbury, and turns out they even collaborated on a story. Sturgeon was in there too--he could be pretty lurid; I came across one early anthologized story that was like a better Stephen King, also a good example of what King calls "sunlit horror---and Jerome "It's a GoodLife" was one of the editors of Planet Stories. Brackett edited a collection of PS pulpfare, have to look for that.

Jerome "It's a Good Life" Bixby, that is.

Didn't Jerome Bixby also edit at Galaxy and maybe basically was filling in for Horace Gold before Frederik Pohl took over?

"Filling in" is too strong, but Bixby as well as Algis Budrys helped out in some important but uncredited way, according to Ashley, perhaps dealing with managerial issues whilst Horace was working with the writers on the writing and rewriting. This is mentioned on Wikipedia page here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Science_Fiction which cites Ashley as well. Other help came from Theodore Sturgeon and Horace's wife Evelyn Paige. Frederik Pohl was helping out, originally in his function as a literary agent but then apparently in other ways and eventually became de facto and then official editor of Galaxy and If after Horace had a car accident.

Time to list the currently known list of attendees at Horace Gold's regular (Friday night) poker game in Stuyvesant Town:

Frederik Pohl
Robert Sheckley
Algis Budrys
Jerome Bixby
Philip Klass aka William Tenn
Alfred Bester
L. Jerome Stanton
Theodore Sturgeon
Lester del Rey
Anthony Boucher

Robert Stein (editor Redbook, Argosy

John Cage
Martin Gardner
Jacqueline Suzanne

Herein is contained a Sheckley reminiscence of those days, although it is quite hard to read since it seems that multiple columns were scanned and jumbled together: https://archive.org/stream/The_New_York_Review_Of_Science_Fiction_048_1992-08/The_New_York_Review_Of_Science_Fiction_048_1992-08_djvu.txt

Ah, reading carefully and found another poker player at that game you will be interested to hear about:

Louis Barron

L. Jerome Stanton also mentioned by Frederik Pohl here

Or really here, to be more precise.

Okay, reading that Sheckley memoir now and it is incredibly worth your time. Just read down the left side- although sometimes the right side intrudes when there is supposed to be a left side- on each page and then go to the "middle."

And here is relevant related page on Sheckley website, mentioning Cage and the Barrons: http://aaasheckley.com/bio/page8.html

Just read down the left side- although sometimes the right side intrudes when there is supposed to be a left side- on each page and then go to the "middle."

Or go to https://archive.org/stream/The_New_York_Review_Of_Science_Fiction_048_1992-08/#page/n19/mode/2up to see readable scans of the page, rather than OCRed text

Ah, thx

Another good SF memoir, complete here, but not too long and won't hurt your eyes---think he started out answering a questionnaire for site and just kept going through third cup of espresso:
http://sciencefiction.loa.org/biographies/bester_writings.php